Alberta Council of Technologies (ABC Tech)

ABC Tech seeks to provide a point of contact and communication for Alberta's industry leaders and entrepreneurs.

Through this site we will offer more than a gateway to Alberta's Industry Associations, but also links to the tools and information Alberta businesses need to commercialize their technologies and fund their growth

Diversifying Alberta’s economy through technology. The Alberta Council of Technologies (ABCtech) advocates for the commercialization of disruptive technologies that will place Alberta and Alberta companies at the forefront of emerging economies. Through the creation of cross-discipline and cross-industry dialogue on emerging technologies and their impact on us, the global citizen, we germinate unique opportunities for collaboration amongst stakeholders who may otherwise not interact. ABCtech achieves this through a series of carefully constructed and executed events.

These events focus on four key outcomes:

1.   The sharing of knowledge, opinions and stories,
2.   The development of a greater understanding of the issues and the common interest that exists amongst a diverse set of stakeholders,
3.   The emergence of networks that cut through industries, disciplines and special interests, and
4.   The establishment of self-sustaining momentum that drives the technology forward to the commercialization stage.

ABCtech identifies a single potentially disruptive technology each year and this becomes our featured technology. We then begin the process of identifying the enablers and stakeholders who need to interact and become engaged in open dialogue to explore the development and commercialization of the technology. These “networking events” become the mechanism by which disruptive technologies can begin to gain traction. Once this traction has been achieved, ABCtech transfers the developmental effort to an existing or emerging organization to carry forward the work in bringing the technology to fruition.

As Perry Kinkaide, ABCtech’s founder and current President states, “ABCTech is broader than just one technology or one industry. We start dialogue about technologies before they emerge, before anyone else is comfortable doing so.”
Kinkaide uses ABCtech’s 2008 feature technology Fusion as an example. “This [Fusion] isn’t something that is going to be commercially available for decades, but when it does come – and it will – it will create a state of energy utopia. Now that’s disruptive! And that’s where Alberta needs to position itself, as a player in that technology before we are relegated to the sidelines and are remembered only as a dirty energy supplier of the past.”
He adds, “We’re not afraid of controversy and we want to continue to push these technologies forward. But we certainly don’t want to hold onto them once we get some momentum. That’s not our role. Instead, our role is to incubate the discussion and the partnership building and then support others to carry it forward into commercialization.”